Busy busy!

I seem to be having one of those productive-type weekends.  Woo hoo!  Unfortunately part of what I'm working on is making a bigger mess in the name of cleaning something up.

Rather than treat you to a drawn out story of what's going on here, I'll do this in bullet point form.

Off we go!

• I'm pulling boxes of papers out of the office closet and unpacking them.  I'm separating items out to shred or recycle in the first round.  This is the part that, unfortunately, has led to two rooms covered in open boxes and stacks of paper.
• Second round, I'll be separating remaining papers to group them with high granularity (utility bills here, credit card statements here, etc)
• Did a few loads of laundry
• cleaned kitchen
• went out last night and spent most of the evening drinking margaritas at Robert and Alan's gorgeously remodeled house
• realized our nice new large roasting pan is slightly too big to fit into our wall oven.  Damn!
• Went to the farmer's market and got a chicken, peaches, brussels sprouts and strawberries.  I love the farmer's market, especially in summer.  We got there too late for blackberries or basil.
• went to the cheese store and got a young goats-milk gouda
• went to the grocery store and got blackberries, baking soda, and unsalted butter.  I really will start baking any day now.
• found my old passport and discovered that I spent 71 days in the UK in the early 90s, so I am able to donate blood and possibly also platelets
• got passport pictures taken and put together a package to get my passport renewed.  The pictures look terrible but are pretty true to life for how I look after 12 hours on a plane.

Still on my list for the rest of today:

• roast chicken and brussels sprouts
• ready papers for round 2 of organization
• get some gym playlists together for my ipod - I've been promising to bring some in for a couple of months
• decide how short to go with the haircut coming next weekend.  Hmmmmm.

It's so much easier to be energetic when the sun is out!

Pardon our dust.

I'm in the process of changing the look of the blog and - perhaps foolishly - am stumbling around in the new templates that Blogger has to offer.  One thing that I can't seem to change is moving the blog title over so that it's centered in the header, but whatever.  Adding spaces to force them over isn't working.  If I get annoyed enough I will just go back to something remedial, or will have to learn HTML to tweak the base code.

Good times, yes?

Brace yourself for more changes and perhaps some difficulty in colors and reading items - unfortunately the edit functions don't allow an active preview of what I'm doing.  Due to this you can watch my blog view totals skyrocketing any time I'm trying to work in here.

Other news: I'm continuing on the learning curve for the new assignment at work.  I had yesterday off and got some good stuff done (Kent and I consolidated our insurance policies), and some wild goose chases. 

First, I spent some time at the IRS office to be told I misread something. 

Then I tried to give blood at USCF.  This is the first step in being able to donate platelets.  Unfortunately, I could not remember how much time I spent in the UK between 1991-1996.  Now I have to find my passport from then and add it up - I'm estimating 8-10 weeks, but if I was there for 90 days or more, I'm permanently deferred from blood donations due to a risk of carrying "mad cow".  I'd have thought it would manifest by now if I had it, but maybe not.  Or, maybe that explains my memory issues (yeah, it's not aging, it's prions!).

It's Pride weekend in SF and there are parties and events aplenty.  Yesterday was cold and miserable (especially last night, high winds and we were socked in with fog), but it's all blue skies so far today.  Tomorrow, parade day, they're forecasting 70 degrees and sunny.  If that happens, the Civic Center is going to be a sea of shirtless, toned men, which I think I need to see.  I also heard that Andy Bell is playing the main stage, which is even more enticement.

So, I am off to do some Suzie Housewifely chores, and then out into the fray.  Happy Pride!

Theory: Weight and Relationships

You've heard the stories, and, like me, you may have seen the signs.  When you're single, you tend to weigh less than when you're in a relationship.  I realize this is not what happens to everyone, but apparently I'm one of the people this happens to.  My new "normal" is higher than my older "normal". So, what is it?

My newest theory is that it's my competitive nature.

When I was a kid, fairness in the amount of food I got vs. what my sister got was a hot button.  When mom would heat up a can of Spaghetti-O's for us to share, if we didn't each have the exact same number of meatballs, there'd be a scene.  If the number of meatballs in the can was odd, one would have to be cut in half to keep peace in the house.

Now, I don't expect to eat as much as Kent does, but I think I still eat more than I do when I'm on my own, and I think it comes down to subconsciously thinking I'm not getting my fair share if I eat sparingly.  Silly, right?  But I end up feeling full more often than I used to (when I would aim for feeling 70% full).  And, of course, filling up more often can lead to, how shall we say, a shift in the calorie equation.

Of course, it could also be due to metabolism shifts, or eating on a schedule rather than checking appetite, but I'm liking my competitiveness theory.

The one friend I floated this idea to says that he weighs more in his relationship because his partner cooks real meals and serves large portions, but when he's on his own he makes something simple and small.  So, my theory does not apply in his case.

What do you think?

I think I need to get more conscious (again) about what I'm eating, and make sure that I'm hungry first before eating something.

Things I have been procrastinating on

It's been one of those days where I'm finally getting to projects that I have been meaning to get to for... well, a long time.  We don't really need to know details on some of this, do we?  No, we don't.

One thing that's been lurking is a stack of papers in the office.  Don't get too excited, the stack is still there, but now it's free of broken glass (one of the diplomas fell a while back and the glass broke and got everywhere - big chunks were picked up but there were still slivers all through the papers).  Over the next week(s) I'll be sorting those papers, and also need to go through papers I just stuffed into boxes before the move.  Hopefully a lot will just be recycled, but I do need to update all my files and get a nice file cabinet and get everything in order.  Now I'm wishing I held onto the beat up metal file cabinet I had at my old house.

One thing I found in the stacks of paper is a tax refund check from just over a year ago.  Uh oh.  Hopefully I can still cash that.  I didn't realize I was that disorganized.  It's small, but still, it's money.

I also went through the refrigerator and took out the shelves and washed them.  Something (I suspect a box of stock) had spilled and got everywhere.  I haven't done the door shelves yet but they were definitely out of the drip range.  I also cleaned up the coffee in the freezer and found its source - an open bag of coffee on its side.  There is a whole pork loin in there too that we should do up sometime when we have a bunch of people over.  Hmmmmm, maybe the housewarming?

Other things are lurking on the list:
1) organize papers (see above)
2) call arborist to clear the rest of the dodgy branches off the monster tree and take out some of the smaller trees (seriously, we are overrun).
3) do living will paperwork and get a revised will in order
4) consolidate insurance policies.  Now would probably be a good time to see if we can get a better rate somewhere else.  An insurance broker would probably be the easiest way to do this.
5) get rid of items - recycle old electronics, donate old clothes and doodads, recycle cardboard, sell the wrong chair slipcovers, etc.
6) go through other boxes and get stuff put away, or get it out of the house (see 5)
7) make cupcakes

Still, I'm glad the glass is cleaned up and the fridge is clean.  That had been bothering me.  Next stop: cleaning the bathroom.  Can't wait!

Transitional

I'm in transition to the new job now.  For the last week or so I've been tracking down loose ends for the project I was on for the last year and a half.  I have one more to finish this afternoon and that should be it for me on that project.  The short term is over and I will not be working with the drama manufacturer any more.  Whew!

The new job, however, is going to be a veritable data tsunami for a while.  Luckily I am taking over duties being done by two guys who won't be leaving for a couple of months, so I have more than a week for getting turnover.  Once I get access to the key systems, I will also be taking a look to see what improvements can be made to make them easier to use and/or understand.  And, of course, I'll be documenting the snot out of everything.  People make fun of me for documenting things, but it's saved my bacon (and theirs, AHEM) enough times that I do it in every job.  (plus, if I don't organize things, I can't find anything)

I'll probably be spending a good chunk of this weekend getting things done around the house.  Small jobs have been lurking ever since the move.  I finally made some headway in my closet last weekend (and am appalled at the number of excess wire hangers in there - those are going to the dry cleaners), but the office is all stacks of stuff that need sorting and filing, and I have boxes of stuff I have been hiding in the guest room that need going through.  A lot of stuff will probably be donated or set aside for a garage sale.  I also need to find a place to stash all my art supplies.

Mom had her second consolidation round of chemo last week.  They reduced her dose since she ended up having such a hard time with the first round; she sounded good when she got home, and we'll be keeping watch on her.  I'm hoping that she will get to spend the next 3 weeks at home in really boring ruts.  She's had too much medical drama already.  Please keep sending your good thoughts!

Kent's been traveling again so things are pretty quiet.  Something has been bothering me lately and I hadn't been able to pinpoint it.  Then, I watched the Glee episode with the Gaga covers, and I think I figured it out.  My freak flag has not been flying.  I haven't figured out yet what to do about this, but stay tuned - some changes are coming soon.  Any suggestions, leave them in the comments!